The NS1 Pulsar + Grafana integration allows users to feed Pulsar performance and availability data from the NS1 platform to Grafana where it can be monitored alongside your existing Grafana dashboards. Viewing this data through Grafana dashboards provides a unified view for monitoring services in your network. Also, Grafana can be configured to trigger alerts so you are notified when the data presents an anomaly.
Grafana supports three types of plugins. The type of plugin leveraged by the NS1 + Grafana integration is a data source plugin that is used to query unconventional systems. The data points plotted by Grafana are limited to the historical data stored in the NS1 platform. In other words, the Grafana plugin does not extend the amount of time Pulsar data is queryable. For example, if the NS1 API stores 24 hours of data, you can only view Pulsar data in Grafana for the last 24 hours.
You must have Pulsar enabled on your NS1 Managed DNS account. If you are not using Pulsar community data, you must have at least one Pulsar application and an associated Pulsar job configured and scheduled.
You must have a valid NS1 API key associated with your account. NS1 recommends creating one exclusively for the Grafana plugin integration.
You must have a working Grafana instance and be able to modify its configuration.
If you haven’t already created one, you must create a new NS1 API key in the NS1 portal with the following permissions enabled:
Monitoring (check all)
Data (check all
Refer to this article for instructions on how to create an API key.
Note
You will need "write" access to the configuration in your Grafana instance.
Download the latest version of the plugin from https://github.com/ns1labs/grafana-pulsar-datasource.
Uncompress the file and move the extracted directory into the plugin directory specified in the Grafana configuration file.
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Edit your local
grafana.inifile and make the following changes:[plugins] allow_loading_unsigned_plugins = ns1labs-pulsarmetrics-datasource [plugin.ns1labs-pulsarmetrics-datasource] allow_local_mode = true
Restart your Grafana instance.
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In the Grafana portal, navigate to the Configuration page from the sidebar menu, and then select Plugins to view a list of available plugins.
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Verify that the NS1 Pulsar Metrics is included in your list of installed plugins. If you do not see it, refer to your Grafana logs and search for any relevant error message.
Note
You may see a temporary "unsigned" warning while the plugin is in the review queue of Grafana Labs.
Navigate to the Data sources tab (Configuration > Data Sources) and click Add data source.
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Search and select the NS1 Pulsar Metrics data source (listed under Others).
A confirmation message indicates the data source was added successfully, and then you are redirected to the plugin configuration page.
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Next to API Key, enter the NS1 API key you created earlier. The API key is stored securely in the Grafana database. Once complete, click Save & test. Grafana validates that the API key can be used to pull data from the NS1 platform. If successful, a confirmation message appears.
Note
If Grafana returns an error message, check the NS1 API key secret or verify the API key permissions to ensure they are correct.
Click Back to return to the configured data sources. The NS1 Pulsar data source appears in the list.
If this is the only data source you have installed, it will be labeled as "default." As you configure additional plugins, you can specify one to be the default.
Next, you must create a new panel in Grafana to query Pulsar data.
Create a new Grafana dashboard or navigate to an existing one.
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Click the "Add panel" icon in the upper-right corner.
The new options appear above the dashboard.
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Click Add a new panel.
The screenshot above shows a sample query with data from Grafana's default data source. Your view might look different depending on your configuration.
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Click the drop-down menu next to Data source (on the lower left, under the Query tab) and select NS1 Pulsar Metrics. Now, all the available Pulsar applications and jobs are available for selection. Note that you can only view the applications and jobs accessible to the NS1 API key you entered when configuring the data source.
Note
Refer to this article to learn more about Pulsar applications and jobs.
Under App, select a Pulsar application. A Pulsar application is a collection of Pulsar resources.
Under Job, select a Pulsar job. A job corresponds to a single Pulsar resource (e.g., CDN, data center, cloud, etc.) being measured. The resource hosts an asset (such as a single-pixel image) to measure availability and latency when the JavaScript tag is executed upon page load.
Under Metric, select a metric type (i.e., performance or availability) from the list.
Under Aggregation, select one of the precalculated aggregations (min, max, avg, p50, p75, p90, p95, p99).
Optionally, you can select a Geo and/or ASN to filter the data — although it's recommended to provide at least a Geo to avoid having a chart showing the global behavior of the CDN, which will only be meaningful under certain circumstances.
On the right-hand sidebar, enter a Title for the new panel and adjust the panel settings and preferences as desired. You will likely want to set the Y-axis units to milliseconds.
Optionally, you can specify additional queries to compare performance or availability data for multiple Pulsar applications and jobs. See below for details.
When you’re ready, click Apply to keep your changes. Click Save in the upper right corner when you are done. You will exit the edit mode.
Enter a name for the dashboard (e.g., "NS1 Pulsar), and then click Save.
The new dashboard appears with the panel you just created. You can modify the dashboard and add more panels as desired.
After creating a new panel in the Grafana dashboard, you can compare the performance data of two different Pulsar applications and/or jobs. To do this, configure a new panel or select an existing panel showing at least one set of Pulsar data.
Under the first query (i.e., “A”), click + Query.
A second query appears with additional settings.
Under the new query (i.e., “B”), select the Pulsar application and job which you want to compare with the first query. Now, the graph shows two data sets — one for each of the defined queries.
Note
When adding additional queries for comparison, be sure to select the same Pulsar application, job, metrics, and aggregation so that you are comparing data of the same type.